As suspected, quarterback Dayne Crist is lost for the season, undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured patellar tendon.

“I met with our doctors today, and he had successful surgery this morning,” Kelly said this afternoon. “The patellar tendon had in fact torn, and it was reattached. The surgery went well and we’re looking at a six month recovery time.”

Crist now faces a situation incredibly similar to last year, rehabbing a major knee injury and racing to recover in time for spring practice. Crist made it back in time to participate in all 15 workouts last year, and will likely set a similar goal this year.

“I talked to him last night and I told him, essentially, sometimes we look for answers and sometimes there are no answers,” Kelly said.

“Sometimes, accidents occur. His situation was, as you probably already heard, it was a non-contact injury, and he fell. There are sometimes no answers. The second thing I said is, you’ve been through this before. You don’t want to go through it again, but at least you’ve already exhibited the strength to get through this, and you’re going to have to call on that to get through it again.”

With Crist gone, Tommy Rees moves into the starting lineup with Nate Montana his primary back-up. Kelly also announced that freshmen Andrew Hendrix and Luke Massa will begin working with the offense, with one of them moving into the emergency No. 3 spot in the depth chart, potentially losing a redshirt after nine games, something nobody wants to do.